thoughtful expression on her face.
“I believe the Liaison Committee had a few proposals on that. It might be a good time to look into them.” She met my gaze straight on. “I’m not promising to be perfect, Daisy, but I’ll do my best to try harder.”
Chapter 16
GREVAR
When the guests finally left that night, Daisy wanted to sit on the large enclosed patio off the dining room for a little while.
He realized the party had turned out to be anything but relaxing for her. After she and Shula had returned from their private talk, the atmosphere had thankfully improved. The conversation had flowed much easier. He’d even heard Daisy laugh a few times.
He knew she must be tired, especially after having woken up so early that morning.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to bed right away?” he asked, catching her trying to stifle a yawn.
“Soon.” She nodded, taking a seat in an armchair made from rollu vine, dried and woven into the shape of a recliner. “I just want to watch the stars for a few minutes.” She glanced up at him as he hovered nearby. “Join me, please.” She patted the seat cushion on the recliner next to hers.
“Do you know names of any constellations up there?” She pointed at the night sky when he sat down.
“All of the major ones.” He nodded. “We use them for navigation when nothing else is available. It’s part of the training. The Leaping Staidus is the largest one. See those three bright stars over there?” He pointed at them, and she leaned her head closer, peering in that direction at the dark winter sky behind the glass.
Her hair tickled his ear. The sweet flowery smell of her perfume caressed his nostrils, the hint of the warm scent of her skin shot straight to his groin. He shifted his legs, suppressing a groan.
“Yes!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I see them.”
“Now, if you follow that line of smaller stars to the left, there is a shorter line underneath that makes the two look kind of like the front paws of a large animal, raised up in the air.”
“Wow, an animal, really?” she giggled softly. “All I see are just two rows of stars.”
“Me too,” he confessed with a laugh. “Whoever came up with those names must’ve had a crazy imagination.”
“And probably had a few drinks on top of that!” she laughed too, leaning away from him, sadly.
He had tamed his erection, but now it was his heart that ached. If he couldn’t stand her moving just a couple of hand-lengths away from him, how could he possibly survive the distance between two planets that threatened to separate them next year?
“How do you use the constellations for navigation?” Daisy asked.
He shook off the gloomy thoughts for now.
“The orientation of those three stars is east to west,” he explained. “The brightest one on that end always points east. When the sky is clear as it is tonight, it’s easy to orientate yourself. On Neron, at least. Other planets’ constellations are completely different, of course.”
“Have you been to other planets?”
“I’ve been to two. Aldrai and Tragul.”
“Both during the war?”
“To Aldrai as a part of a peaceful delegation. To Tragul both during combat missions and for meetings with Ravil officials. The country of Ravie on Tragul is our ally in the war with fescods.”
“Isn’t the war over now?”
“The fescods’ invasion of Neron is over, but they refuse to co-exist peacefully with other nations on Tragul. They invaded Ravie and have fought Ravils’ resistance for two decades. Taking into account the fescods’ aggressive nature, they will be causing trouble for a long time still.”
“Even losing to Voranians didn’t stop them?”
“Nothing truly will, I’m afraid. It’s impossible for us to communicate with fescods. They don’t have a spoken language but communicate with each other through shared brain waves. They’re being led by an entity called Central Mind that does all their thinking for them. It uses the individual fescods as soldiers—a well-coordinated, ruthless army. It’s extremely hard to kill a fescod, too. Their skin reflects all energy rays, including laser. Their bodies expel bullets fired from projectile weapons. So far, the most efficient weapons against them have been blades.”
“Sounds terrifying.” A shudder ran through Daisy’s body. “The creatures you ripped to pieces in that video were fescods, weren’t they?” Her lip curled in disgust. He didn’t blame her, fescods were rather ugly. Their behaviour made them even more repulsive.
“Yes. The video was taken on Tragul.”
“Did you crash there? Your aircraft